Sarah Palin returns

More radical statements from the extreme right from the former half-term governor of Alaska.

Ah, Sarah Palin. The gift that keeps giving...

Chief strategist for McCain campaign on Sarah Palin: "Manifestly unprepared to take the oath of office"

Steve Schmidt - chief strategist for Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign - is a plain-spoken and direct man. This morning he appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and asked for his thoughts on HBO’s movie “Game Change.”

With blunt honesty, Schmidt spoke about the selection of Sarah Palin as McCain’s vice presidential nominee and his role in that decision:

“It’s a story of when cynicism and idealism collide, when you have to do the things that are necessary to win to try to get in office to do the great things you want to do for the country,” Schmidt said. “And I think it showed a process of vetting that was debilitated by secrecy, that was compartmentalized, that failed, that led to a result that was reckless for the country. And I think when you look back at that race, you see this person who is just so phenomenally talented at so many levels, an ability to connect. But also someone who had a lot of flaws as someone running to be in the national command authority who clearly wasn’t prepared.”

“Politically, she was a net positive to the campaign,” Schmidt said of the former Alaska governor. But she was a “net negative” because “someone was nominated to the vice presidency who was manifestly unprepared to take the oath of office should it become necessary and as it has become necessary many times in American history.”

“For me and the experience I had on this campaign is that there are worse things than losing,” Schmidt said. When he was asked to spell that out, he said, “When a result happens that puts someone who’s not prepared to be president on the ticket, that’s a bad result. I think the notion of Sarah Palin being president of the United States is something that frightens me, frankly. And I played a part in that. And I played a part in that because we were fueled by ambition to win.”

Andrea Mitchell asked Schmidt whether he thought Palin had a future as a national leader in the GOP:

“I hope not,” he said. “And the reason I say that is because if you look at, over the last four years, all of the deficiencies in knowledge, all the deficiencies in preparedness, she’s done not one thing to rectify them, to correct them. She has become a person who I think is filled with grievance, filled with anger who has a divisive message for the national stage when we need leaders in both parties to have a unifying message. . . . The lack of preparedness was a bad thing and the total disinterest in being more prepared and rectifying that is something that disqualifies.”

(source)

Sarah Palin: "Anything is possible" regarding an open GOP convention

She's baaaaaaack!

While voting in Alaska last night, Sarah Palin - the former half term governor - was asked whether she would consider being "drafted" for GOP presidential nominee should there be no clear victor at the end of the primary season.

Palin didn't shut the door on that or on running in 2016.

HBO's 'GAME CHANGE' - Sarah Palin thought Queen of UK ran government

HBO is preparing to release a television film on the 2008 ascent of then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin that seems sure to reopen the wounds of that lost campaign and reignite controversy over Palin's fitness for office and the wisdom of putting her on the ticket.

"Game Change," based on the 2010 book of the same name by two journalists, is set to premiere on HBO March 10.

Former John McCain campaign aides depicted in the movie, including Steve Schmidt, the campaign's chief strategist, vouched for its accuracy in interviews with The LA Times this week.

"Game Change" shows Palin, portrayed by Julianne Moore, thrust on to the international stage, only for her handlers to belatedly discover the huge gaps in her knowledge of the world — ignorant of the Federal Reserve System, mistakenly believing Saddam Hussein ordered the 9/11 attacks against the United States and unaware that the prime minister, and not Queen Elizabeth II, ran the British government.

Schmidt and a chief Palin '08 aide, Nicolle Wallace, said they found it highly credible. Wallace said the film "captured the spirit and emotion of the campaign."

HBO noted the depth of research behind the movie and said in a statement: "HBO has a long track record of producing fact-based dramas, and our mantra has always been, 'get the story right.' We hope that people will withhold any judgment until they have viewed the film."

The Palin camp's response was: "Game Change" was based on a "false narrative."

"This was a surreal experience for me," Schmidt said of the movie, in which he is played by actor Woody Harrelson. "Ten weeks of the campaign are condensed into a two-hour movie. But it tells the truth of the campaign. That is the story of what happened."

Since McCain's loss, the longtime Republican strategist has gradually been revealing more of his feelings about the lost election. The film vindicates the view he and many others around McCain had: the "high-risk, high-reward" choice of Palin, which Schmidt pushed for, had been a terrible mistake.

"My judgment was influenced by an ambition for victory, trying to figure out a way to win the race," Schmidt said from his Lake Tahoe home. "There is no question she helped to energize the campaign and to catapult John McCain into the lead. But the result was the nomination of someone who was fundamentally not qualified to be in the national command authority. That supersedes any short-term or long-term political advantage. Obviously, I have great regret over that."

Schmidt and most of the other top operatives from the McCain campaign gave extended interviews to John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, the book authors. Many of the same sources also spoke to Danny Strong, writer of the film, and to director Jay Roach.

One jarring revelation in which the movie reaches beyond the book comes when Schmidt makes a query to assess nominee Palin's awareness of foreign affairs, asking McCain's VP pick how she would respond in the White House to news of waning British support for the war in Iraq.

The Palin character, sitting opposite Schmidt in a campaign bus, says McCain would "continue to have an open dialogue" with the queen of England on the subject. Flabbergasted, the Schmidt character informs her the queen is not the head of government. Palin asks who is. He informs her that the country has a prime minister.

Strong said he uncovered that additional episode during the 25 interviews he conducted with principals from Team McCain. Schmidt confirmed the account.